Darris McNeely, a presenter on Beyond Today and associate UCG media producer, will cover the third part of this series with, “Babylon the Great.”

The Bible shows us Babylon was a city, an empire and the personification of all that opposes the plan and purpose of God. The Book of Revelation shows an end-time global manifestation of this age-long system. It will be Satan’s final masterpiece of deception. What do the people of God need to understand about Babylon in order to “come out of her” and take no part in her sins (Revelation 18:4)? Join us in this fascinating look at “Babylon the Great.”

Join us for this series on the basics of end time prophecy. We’ll examine important prophecies that could have significant impact on your life. By delving into a study of God’s Word, we’ll find what a tremendous benefit and blessing it is to understand Bible prophecy! Here is the schedule for the remainder of the prophecy series:

Over the centuries many have tried to predict the date of Jesus Christ’s return. Dates have come and gone. Some have said that all signs point to His return this year. There is no doubt that Christ said He would come again. But can we know when this tremendous event will occur? Our Bible study will examine the timing and occasion of His imminent return.

Join us for this series on the basics of end time prophecy. We’ll examine important prophecies that could have significant impact on your life. By delving into a study of God’s Word, we’ll find what a tremendous benefit and blessing it is to understand Bible prophecy! Here is the schedule for the remainder of the prophecy series:

We all wonder what the future may hold, especially with so many troubles in our world today. God doesn’t want us to be unaware of what is to come. He has revealed much about the future so that we can have peace of mind and become spiritually prepared.

Join us for this series on the basics of end time prophecy. We’ll examine important prophecies that could have significant impact on your life. By delving into a study of God’s Word, we’ll find what a tremendous benefit and blessing it is to understand Bible prophecy! Here is the schedule for the new prophecy series:

This program, hosted by Darris McNeely, generated 1,842 telephone and Internet responses and also produced the lowest cost per response this fiscal year.

People from around the world responded very well to “Seven Prophetic Signs Before Jesus Returns.” Internet responses were recorded from viewers in Australia, Cambodia, Canada, England, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United States and Venezuela.

We honor God for His guidance and inspiration in making these wonderful results possible. We also thank you for your ongoing prayers and support.

Beyond Today Television:

Top 15 Programs 2013-2014 Fiscal Year

Beyond Today program “Seven Prophetic Signs Before Jesus Returns” hosted by Darris McNeely, holds the top position in terms of response for programs telecast during the now-concluded 2013-2014 fiscal year. This episode, which aired in February 2014, logged an outstanding 3,306 responses. Please see the chart down below showing the top 15 programs and responses from each.

Also, viewer response from all 52 telecasts this past fiscal year totaled 48,286. This is the highest annual response ever recorded for Beyond Today.

Global Internet Responses to Beyond Today

We are very pleased to report that Internet response to Beyond Today continues at steady pace. During the 2013-2014 fiscal year Internet response alone totaled 15,063—which came from the following 86 countries and territories:

Abu Dhabi

Antiqua and Barbuda

Australia

Argentina

Barbados

Belgium

Belize

Bengladesh

Botswana

Brazil

Cameroon

Canada

Chile

China

Colombia

Cote d ‘lvoire

Denmark

Dominican Republic

England

Estonia

Ethiopia

Finland

France

Georgia

Germany

Ghana

Greece

Grenada

Guyana

Hong Kong

Hungary

India

Ireland

Israel

Indonesia

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Kenya

Kuwait

Lativa

Lesotho

Luxembourg

Malaysia

Malta

Mexico

Moldova

Morocco

Namibia

New Zealand

Netherlands

Nigeria

Northern Ireland

Norway

Pakistan

Panama

Paraguay

Philippines

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Romania

Russia

Saint Maarten

Saudi Arabia

Scotland

Singapore

South Africa

South Korea

Spain

Sri Lanka

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Lucia

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Tanzania

Thailand

Togo

Trinidad/Tobago

Uganda

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

United States

US Virgin Islands

Wales

Vietnam

As always, we are very grateful of your continual prayers, support and encouragement for God’s blessing on this important work.

Furthermore, the program encouraged Internet responses from viewers in thirteen countries and territories including Australia, Canada, England, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Romania, South Africa, St. Maarten and the United States.

Finally, we are now in the fourth of our ten week airing test on the ION televisionnetwork. Viewer’s response metrics are being registered and analyzed after each airing. We anticipate providing you with an update as we near the end of our testing and research.

Beyond Today presenters, Gary Petty, Darris McNeely, Steve Myers and all our media staff are immensely grateful for your continuing prayers. Please keep them coming as we all work together in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God through the powerful guidance and direction of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

Setting the Stage for Bible Prophecy

It’s not often that we can witness the world changing before our eyes—and even less so when it changes in a way that may be setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

For more than a year our news headlines have been chronicling the so-called “Arab Spring”—a supposed flowering of democracy in Mideast nations long ruled by dictators. Western journalists, commentators and politicians hailed the popular uprisings that ousted such leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

But the Western media have overwhelmingly overlooked the two most important factors in this movement that’s transforming the region before our eyes.

The first key factor they’ve overlooked is what’s filling the vacuum left by the ouster of these strongmen. Most of those driven from power—or struggling to hold on—are secular nationalists motivated by personal and national interests. But it’s increasingly evident that they are being replaced primarily by religious fanatics determined to set up Islamic theocracies.

They’re essentially following in the footsteps of Osama bin Laden, whose ultimate goal was to see the establishment of a worldwide Islamic superpower, transcending national borders, comprised of all Muslim believers. But because so many of our Western media and political leaders don’t understand the teachings of Islam, they are blind to the significance of these world-transforming developments.

The second key factor they’ve overlooked is how these developments relate to Bible prophecy. Scripture reveals that at the time of the end, a new leader from the Arab world will light the match that ignites a new world war, setting in motion a devastating chain of events that will lead directly to Armageddon and the second coming of Jesus Christ.

This is why the subtitle of The Good News is “a Magazine of Understanding.” We at the United Church of God analyze the world from the perspective of the Bible and Bible prophecy, helping you understand where major world events and trends are ultimately heading. And no region is more important to understand than the Middle East, where so much is foretold to happen in the coming years.

The series on the book of Revelation continues with chapters 19 and 20. Chapter 19 is a prophecy about the return of Jesus Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb. It also talks about the fate of the beast and the false prophet. Chapter 20 covers the timeframe of the 1,000-year millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and it also covers the resurrections. It ends with the judgment upon those people who refuse to follow Jesus Christ.

Join us for in-depth study into these topics and more on Wednesday. Presenters will be Steve Myers and Peter Eddington.

Plan to attend in person, or you can listen online. Also, please note that we have a mobile option. You can view the Bible study using your smartphone.

I suppose I should be happy that America’s leaders have averted the “fiscal cliff” originally slated to hit Jan. 1. At least that’s what I’m told I should feel.

For some reason I don’t feel much like celebrating when the last-minute deal struck by congress to supposedly help put the nation’s financial house in order will in reality add about $4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade—and will add $41 in taxes for every $1 cut in spending.

So how did we get into this mess?

Consider a few facts:

The U.S. government is like a family with a $21,700 annual income spending $38,200 a year, with $16,500 of that put on credit cards—when the family already owes $142,710 on those credit cards!

The U.S. government currently borrows 40 percent of all that it spends. That means it borrows and spends $10.4 billion each day, $433 million per hour, $7.2 million per minute, and $120,370 per second! (And this isn’t all that it spends—merely what it borrows to spend.)

For four consecutive years the federal government has amassed a trillion-dollar deficit. It took the United States 200 years to accumulate its first trillion dollars in debt. Now it takes about 10 months!

We have already spent the money that will be paid in taxes by the next generation of Americans, and more—stealing wealth from them to maintain our standard of living through massive borrowing.

Each American’s share of federal government debt is about $45,000—and expected to grow to almost $75,000 by 2020, only seven years away.

Shocking as these figures are, they in fact vastly underestimate the scope of the problem. When we factor in unfunded liabilities—the amount needed to fully fund government promises for Social Security, Medicare, military and government employee pensions and health care, the real debt load then jumps to five to ten times the $16 trillion current deficit! And that doesn’t even include similar unfunded liabilities for the 50 individual states and hundreds of American towns and cities.

The fact is, America has already run off the fiscal cliff. The real question is, how long until we hit bottom?

But again, how did we get into this mess?

You need to understand the answer. You may be surprised to learn that it was foretold several thousand years ago in the pages of your Bible!

You need to understand what’s prophesied to happen to America, and much of the rest of the Western world. More importantly, you need to understand why.

That’s why we call The Good News “a Magazine of Understanding.” We want to help you make sense of this world that’s rapidly changing around us. And the keys to understanding that are found in the Bible.

We hope you’ll carefully read the articles in this next issue, which is dedicated to the crucial question of “Where Does America Go From Here?” You need to know! Your issue should be arriving in your mailbox any day now (if it hasn’t already). Or you can preview and download it here.

Beyond Today Television Results

Since the inception of the United Church of God’sBeyond Today television program, we have received more than 145,00 direct responses asking for the literature offered. This figure does not include the many website visitors that go online immediately upon viewing the program to read more about the topic.

The chart below shows results for each year since 2006. We are experiencing a very encouraging increase year-to-year. In addition, we are pleased to report that dozens of baptisms and new attendees have resulted from those who first found out about the gospel of the Kingdom of God from our television effort.

Please see the rise in responses year-to-year from 2006 through 2012 in the following chart:

Beyond Today TV Results2006-2012

Beyond Today television airs nationwide on WGN America and the WORD Network. (We end our contract with World Harvest Network, METV and FETV on December 31 due to budget cuts.) We are on an additional two dozen cable-access stations sponsored by members. Please visit our station listing page for times and channels that include the United States, Canada and Australia.

In addition, Beyond Today has it’s own YouTube channel and we have had 2.4 million views of our programs and video blogs.

We are now in the process of creating a public Roku channel for Beyond Today.

The top response program so far this fiscal year is “Middle East Family Feud” by Darris McNeely that aired the week of November 11-17; followed by “You Are What You Eat” by Steve Myers that aired the week of September 16-12.

In years past, the Church of God always capitalized on the emerging media of the time—whether it was the printed word, radio or television. Today it is no different, and so areas that we are tapping into more effectively include television and streaming and on-demand video.

Television is an important part of our three-fold media mix that includes our printed literature and our website. Please continue to remember the work of preaching the gospel of God’s Kingdom in your daily prayers.